Ten teams now vying for part of the $30 million purse offered up by Google

Google announced this week that it now has ten teams
registered to compete for its $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE. Google’s Lunar
X PRIZE competition is a serious undertaking with requirements to win the cash
prize stipulating that the teams build and launch a craft that can travel to the
moon and land on its surface.

Once the craft reaches the lunar surface, the lander portion
of the craft must be able to travel 500 meters over the surface of the moon and
send back at least one gigabyte of images and video. All crafts in the competition
are required to have still and HD video cameras to compete. The first team to complete
these tasks will win a prize of $20 million.

The other $10 million of the prize money is broken up into
two $5 million prizes that can be won. One of the $5 million purses is up for
grabs for the second place team to complete the main objectives of the
competition. The remaining $5 million is for the rover able to complete other
missions on the moon’s surface including finding water or ice, traveling the
longest distance, and having the greatest endurance.

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE foundation announced the entry of ten teams at Google headquarters on
February 21. Diamandis said in a statement, “I’m very pleased to welcome our
first 10 fully registered teams to the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Only 6 months
after the announcement of this competition, the response has been incredible –
we’ve received over 560 expressions of interest from more than 53 nations.”

"We are excited that ten teams from around the world
have taken up the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE," said Megan
Smith, Google's Vice President for New Business Development. "We look
forward to the exciting achievements and scientific advancements that will
result from the efforts of these teams as they participate in the next great
space race."

An additional $2 million price is being offered in the
competition to the team that wins the competition provided that the winning
team launches from Florida and wins the competition while complying with all
the competition rules.